Boogie Belgique were "born" in 2012, through the imaginative experimentation of its founder Oswald Cromheecke with abstract hip hop, dub rhythms and swing melodies.
With a steady and continuous development over the years, Boogie Belgique quickly established themselves in the underground scene of instrumental hip hop, trip hop, electro-swing and nu jazz, quickly gaining fans all over the world.
Shortly before their return to our country, Oswald answers the apt and very interesting questions of Nikos Chinaris, and invites us to travel together with their music at Piraeus Club Academy on Friday November 3rd in Athens and Saturday November 4th at Principal Club, in Thessaloniki.
These are shows not to be missed!
TICKETS - INFO
🎟️ Athens: https://www.more.com/music/boogie-belgique/
🎟️ Thessaloniki: https://tickets.public.gr/music/boogie-belgique-1/
RockOverdose: Greetings and thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. How have you guys been?
BOOGIE BELGIQUE: Hi! Thank you for the interview! We've been great. It took a long time to finish our latest album "Machine", we've been working on it since a long time during the pandemic mostly, we're really happy and we're looking forward to present it on countries all over Europe and Greece for sure!
RockOverdose: You are more than half way through your Machine Tour. Are you guys satisfied with how it went so far? Any highlights?
BOOGIE BELGIQUE: Yes, we're really happy with the tour so far! We did six shows in the UK which were great. We got a lot of great reviews and lot of compliments from people, so we're happy cause we worked hard on these latest shows. I think it's a mixture of older more popular songs and also the new tracksfrom our latest album, and it works really well. All the band really likes the tour so far and I think is maybe the best so far.
So, yeah we got some highlights of course, London is always amazing when we play there in Jazz Cafe which is a really nice venue, but also in Belgium we played in Da Roma where we also recorded the 2nd session of our recorded sessions during the pandemic, which is a really nice old cinema. Always we have some great locations and meet nice people and lot of fans, it's been great so far!
RockOverdose: To anyone who might “blindly” cme to your concert, what music do you play? What can they expect?
BOOGIE BELGIQUE: Well, Boogie Belgique is a blend between electronic music and jazz, trip-hop and hip-hop, also a little bit of abstract hip-hop. It's a compination with a lot of styles, that have the same flare of nostalgia, and like a wing to the past kind of thing.
At our lives we play a show which is kind of a roller coaster, we have lot of dance tracks, but also some down tempo tracks. We bring a show of a solid hour and a half, with six people on stage, drums, trumpet, saxophone, keys, guitar and vocals, complete with a visual show. In my opinion we've created a good balance between the more popular older songs and also the new tracks, so I think for every fan there's a nice thing in it. We've been working hard to perfect the atmosphere of Boogie Belgique and I think the show is the perfect compination of everything.
RockOverdose: Boogie Belgique is now over 10 years old! From a DJ set with a trumpet to a full band! Looking back, would you change anything about your course? What’s next?
BOOGIE BELGIQUE: Yeah, we're 10 years old that's absolutely true! We started out with a DJ set in Greece, back in 2012 or 2013 I think. We did our first show there and if I look back I don't think I would change anything. It's been a struggle of course, we first have a DJ set and then formed a live band, we released albums independently but also within labels, everything has their pros and cons and we've learned a lot throughout those years of course. We did mostly everything by ourselves, artwork, videos and of course the music itself, to keep that artistic identity and preserve it as well as possible, and I think we've actually achieved that. Of course, we've changed a lot but I think I wouldn't change a anything.
What's next? We're going to play a lot and see what happens, we have some special things to release on the next months so stay tuned. There's a lot to come!
RockOverdose: Jazz, electro-swing, trip-hop can all be heard in your music. Do you come from these styles both as listeners and players? Has the songwriting process changed as you added more players to the group?
BOOGIE BELGIQUE: Yeah, they definately did. I used to listen a lot to trip hop and abstract hip-hop, electro swing and at the same time I also listen to jazz. I have music collection of old jazz records and everything like that, it's my mothers actually, so I was influenced by that also.
Boogie Belgique substance is still existing in the music, it's the same but it has changed throughout the years. In the begining we also had a dub side on it, and still has it in some sense. Of course, when I started working with more people, they all brought their inspirations their influences and opinions to the table, so this changes our music also.
In this latest album there are also electronic influences, but we always try to pay the same respect to the core ID behind Boogie Belgique.
RockOverdose: You guys have been to Greece on several occasions in the past. What memories do you have from here?
BOOGIE BELGIQUE: Greece is the first country we've ever visited as Boogie Belgique back in 2012-13, when we played music together so I got to know Greece through BB, as I've never been there before which is really nice, because you're not a tourist. You work and you meet really nice people that share the same taste in music and views on life, they show you the country and its best places, restaurants, families ...
Greece has been so friendly towards us, and everytime we talk about it in the band we always say we want to go back. We definatelly look forward to come back as we have great memories, we actually had a vacation there before our show there in the past, so yeah ... we're looking forward!
RockOverdose: Writing, recording, rehearsing, touring and repeat. Though living off your music sounds like a dream, does the life of a full-time musician ever feel like too much? Is the danger of making it feel like a job there?
BOOGIE BELGIQUE: That's a really good question. I'm really lucky that I can be a full time musician. It's not that easy, I know a lot of people who are really great musicians but have to do something else on the sides. Certainly nowdays have been more and more difficult. It can be really nice when everything comes together, when you're finishing an album or have a nice rehearshal or show, but of course it's a lot of work like any other job. You have to prepare in advance and also making music of course takes a lot of time and work, sample digging, producing, writing, recording, mixing and mastering it's a lot of work.
Lot of people in the creating process would say that they see it as a hobby to have fun and after a while it gets more dull, when you do it as a job. I don't have that actual problem, that much. It can be difficult sometimes with the parts of the job that I don't like much, eg.budgeting, emails etc When I make music I have the same spark as I've the first time and I hope it stays. It doesn't ever feel like a job for me.
RockOverdose: There is a group of people who object to sampling. We often see tracks on Youtube getting slowed down and “reverbed” getting more views than the original. What draws the line from creative usage and respecting the source material to stealing? How do you approach it?
BOOGIE BELGIQUE: That's also a very good guestion! For me, I was always really strict on this matter. When I started using samples I used them specially because I wasn't that professioned in playing music myself, like guitar or anything else. So I needed another tool and sampling was the next best thing. I started adding garage bands using microsamples and using samples that were in the program to make completely new tracks. Back in the day were actually even tracks based for another band that was working in, so I used it as a tool and from that point BB started. I used samples in a way to make a whole new song.
It's a difficult manner because, I think I understant people who object to something, and certainly when samples just have a bit underneath, or slow down a bit and anything like that and then credited to new artists. I think that's not ok. But maybe it's not that black & white, because sometimes I think to reach new audience it can be modernised a bit or something.
Of course, with a lot of respect to the original artist. I think a good example of this is what Polites (?) did with older songs, the did some tributes e.g. Frank Sinatra, where they put a bit on them, re-arrange it a bit, it's not a completely different song, I think it's actually a tribute to the original track which actually works pretty well and attracts new audiences, puts a new focus on the music of Frank Sinatra. For me sampling is something to start a new song with, a base, a soul that you already have and you cut it up, you jumble it or write a new progression making it, instead of a happy song you can make it the other way round, a sad song. That's the nice part of sampling, it's a tool and it can be magical if it works.
RockOverdose: Which artist would you bring back to life and have them on the stage with you? You can make a top 3 if you can’t choose!
BOOGIE BELGIQUE: Definately I'd make a top 3 cause that's really difficult. Well, I think on stage I would definately invide Billie Holiday, she's one of the best singers I've ever heard and has an extraordinary life. She was really talented and had a big impact in jazz in general, and she's still timeless.
Next to her another amazing woman singer, Nina Simone of course, who also had a difficult life. You can feel it in her music, on what she wrote and how she bring it.
Maybe also a man, like Duke Ellington! His music has a very important impact on Boogie Belgique music and how his cinematic approach to big band music which is something we really love and always try to put this in some sort of sense in BB music. So yeah, that's my top 3!
RockOverdose: Thanks a lot for your time fellas, I can’t wait to see you in Athens! The last word goes to you!
BOOGIE BELGIQUE: We are really looking forward to these 2 shows in Athens and Thessaloniki, it's been a long time and we've been working really hard to this projects and on this "Machine tour" show. We can't wait, it's going to be great. Thank you for your really interesting questions. Thank you so much! Cheers!
On behalf of RockOverdose,
Nick Chinaris
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